There will be variability throughout the season even if all the cells are the same size.

03-02-2011, 10:38 PM

Barry

Re: Small Cell Hive

Yes. During the summer you won't see any size difference in the bees. Winter and Spring bees will be smaller.

03-07-2011, 01:35 AM

Oldtimer

Re: Small Cell Hive

OK well now quite a few SC bees have hatched, they are an assortment of sizes, some of them very small. I've had a better look at all the combs. Some of them are a real mess of cell sizes, but there are 2 almost perfectly drawn ones and one fairly good. So I've transferred the hive into a breeder hive that has 3 frames sectioned off with an excluder. The 3 best frames are in there with the queen. As the others hatch I'll cut out the comb, put in new foundation, and let the bees re-draw them. HOPEFULLY, now there's a growing population of small ones they'll do a good job. Also, the LC bees are at least several weeks old, once there's enough young SC ones to take over domestic jobs the older ones should mostly become foragers, which they were before they joined this hive, so in theory it will mostly be sc bees drawing the combs.

While admiring my nicely drawn comb, i spotted a varroa running across it!:eek:. So this small cell stuff better work!

It's taken nearly 2 months to get to this stage, and the last thing I did was remove most of the older LC bees by moving the hive to the other side of the yard.

It has been harder than i thought to quickly get 5.5 mm bees to this point using wax foundation, and has involved some fairly intensive hive management. I think for others thinking of doing it i would recommend using the plastic 4.9 drawn comb as an easier less hands on way. For me though plastic is too unatural I won't use it. But as a result I've had to waste 5 pieces of SC comb foundation, which were not drawn right and I've had to cut them out and put new foundation in the comb.

It's still a small hive but will just be in winterable condition in time. I'm going to do some more SC hives and have a seperate apiary of them. But i will not go through the hassle of making them from 5.5 mm bees again i will take them as splits from this hive next spring.

03-27-2011, 06:48 AM

Omie

Re: Small Cell Hive

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldtimer

The bees are now drawing the combs perfectly!:D

Very beautiful comb!

Quote:

While admiring my nicely drawn comb, i spotted a varroa running across it!:eek:. So this small cell stuff better work!

lol!

03-27-2011, 08:46 AM

Barry

Re: Small Cell Hive

Yeah, it's a lot of work. I too will only use wax. Don't like plastic. Call me old school. You're forgetting one thing on your comb photo. We want to see a metric ruler on it to verify the cell size.

03-27-2011, 08:51 AM

Solomon Parker

Re: Small Cell Hive

That's a very nice frame. Even my best ones usually have lines where the wires are.

Don't you trust him Barry? ;-D

03-27-2011, 09:26 AM

Barry

Re: Small Cell Hive

It was common practice back when some of us were going through the regression phase to post photos of our comb with steel metric rules on them. It was a moment of celebration and accomplishment. I'm sure the old guy's word is good, but nothing like seeing it for ourselves. Besides, having the ruler on there gives us a way in Photoshop to move it around and measure the whole comb. ;)

03-27-2011, 10:49 AM

Solomon Parker

Re: Small Cell Hive

I know, I was around back then. I only just posted my own comb comparison photos on my blog. I was quite happy with myself. It's nice to finally have spare comb instead of just foundation all the time.

03-27-2011, 01:26 PM

Oldtimer

Re: Small Cell Hive

What a trusting bunch!

Oh well, if you insist, I should be able to get a shot of the same comb with a ruler on it later today.

If I'm not lieing, you both owe me one.

03-27-2011, 02:01 PM

Solomon Parker

Re: Small Cell Hive

Sounds good, if I ever get around to coming to New Zealand I'll buy you a cold one (whatever 'one' you prefer).

This foundation was bought from the only SC mill in New Zealand, the mill imported by a real genuine "natural bee" type guy, and advertised as 4.9 mm cell.

But according to the measurements in this pic, it is 5.0 mm. Am I right? If so, after the time I've put into this I'm a little, well, less than happy.

Do I fire off a complaint, or is genuine 4.9 mm cell meant to look like this?

03-27-2011, 06:23 PM

Solomon Parker

Re: Small Cell Hive

It could be stretched a little bit. Did you try measuring along the other two directions or in a different spot?

03-27-2011, 06:24 PM

Oldtimer

Re: Small Cell Hive

Yes been there done that. It's the same no matter which way you measure it.

03-27-2011, 06:29 PM

Oldtimer

Re: Small Cell Hive

Barry or Wired For Stereo could you put a pic of some of your 4.9 comb with a ruler so i can eyeball and compare?

03-27-2011, 06:46 PM

Omie

Re: Small Cell Hive

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barry

It was common practice back when some of us were going through the regression phase to post photos of our comb with steel metric rules on them. It was a moment of celebration and accomplishment. I'm sure the old guy's word is good, but nothing like seeing it for ourselves. Besides, having the ruler on there gives us a way in Photoshop to move it around and measure the whole comb.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldtimer

What a trusting bunch!
Oh well, if you insist, I should be able to get a shot of the same comb with a ruler on it later today.
If I'm not lieing, you both owe me one.

Great- now thanks to Barry, Oldtimer realizes that he can Photoshop the ruler in his photo to be larger, thus fooling us all into believing his comb is smaller than everyone else's! :cool: :doh:

:lpf::lpf:

03-27-2011, 06:54 PM

Solomon Parker

Re: Small Cell Hive

There's two pictures in the first post on my blog. I can't post it here because it's way too big. Just follow the link in my signature below. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

03-27-2011, 07:02 PM

Roland

Re: Small Cell Hive

Better ask him if he got his measuring stick down at the foundry.HE HE HE